The press release is out and with the games starting this weekend, new batting helmets will be on every head:

– Beginning with the start of this week’s Spring Training exhibition games, Rawlings Sporting Goods Company, Inc. … and its new S100® Pro Comp™ batting helmet will become the standard throughout Major League Baseball®. The mandatory implementation of Rawlings’ technologically-advanced batting helmet is outlined in the 5-year collective bargaining agreement signed in November 2011 by MLB and the MLB Players Association™. Rawlings is the Official Batting Helmet of Major League Baseball.

In non-press release speak, those are updated versions of the carbon fiber helmets which were introduced a few years ago and were worn by players like David Wright, who were coming back from concussions. But there’s a big difference: they are much smaller than they used to be, back when people called them “Great Gazoo” helmets or whatever. Even last year, when they weren’t yet mandatory, the helmets were smaller.

Good news for the batters. Nothing wrong with more protection for sure. This shouln’t have too much effect, unless the batters have a little more confidence crowding the plate. Wouln’t surprise me in the future to see the metal bats come into play. The new ones they use on college emulate the wooden bats fairly closely on the speed of the ball coming off the bat. It would be atough tradition to break, but you never know.